Stream of Consciousness

Part IV

Number Six looked up at Gaius Baltar as he stepped through the curtains surrounding the table upon which Lee Adama lay. He had that odd look about his face, the one he always wore when he was up to something. It was halfway between self-congratulations and approval-seeking. He turned off the alarms on Lee's life-signs monitor, and said to her, "It is done."

For a moment, the two stood facing each other but looking aside at the monitors while Lee Adama's life slipped away. His pulse was slowing and becoming increasingly irregular, while his blood pressure was rapidly dropping. Six placed a hand on Gaius' chest, and he looked away from the monitors toward her. She kept her eyes averted, but stepped closer to him until their lips nearly met. Gaius could feel the soft heat of her breath on the skin around his mouth. Six held this position for a moment, then broke the silent intimacy as she stepped past Gaius to stand at Lee's side. Gaius turned, a fleeting look of confusion on his face, and then joined her beside the examination table. Behind them, monitor screens began silently flashing red as Lee's blood pressure dropped to nothing and his heart rate flatlined.

Gaius stood silently at Lee Adama's side as he died, watching Six intently. She seemed focused on Lee's face, her manner reverent. The revulsion with which she had reacted to him previously was gone. Gaius allowed a few seconds to slip by, and then interrupted her with a question.

"Has the Centurion's consciousness left the body?" he queried.

"Not yet, but soon," Six responded without breaking her concentration.

Gaius stepped away from Six, walking deliberately around the examination table until he stood facing her across Lee's body. "I'm curious," he said, watching Six's face as she continued to regard Lee. "Do you… I mean do the Cylons…" Gaius' face twisted with the effort of conforming his question with her unreality. "Do you practice emergency medicine? Trauma surgery, resuscitation? Or does the fact that you have a fresh body, ready and waiting, make that sort of thing unnecessary?"

"Gaius, death is part of life," she responded. "We experience it, learn from it. We do not fight it." She looked up from Lee's face, meeting Gaius' eyes. "We live in the Stream. When death comes, it carries us back, and we begin life again…" She placed her fingers against the side of Lee's face, and continued, "…just as this Centurion has done."

"Excellent," Baltar responded as he withdrew another syringe and ampoule from his jacket pocket. Moving quickly, he uncovered the needle and thrust it into the small bottle. Pulling back on the plunger, he withdrew nearly a syringe-full of the oily yellow liquid and injected it into a vein in Lee's arm. He stepped around the table and once more flipped the 'Silence Alarms' switch on the monitoring equipment. Immediately the pulse monitor began the steady tone that indicated flatline, while the blood pressure monitor emitted a warbling alarm.

Baltar stepped through the curtains and nearly collided with the marine guard. "Get Doctor Cottle," Baltar ordered, explaining "We have an emergency!" Then he turned back and grabbed the defibrillator that was on standby near the examination table. Grasping the tube of cream used to improve contact with the skin and prevent burns, he shot some onto one of the paddles and rubbed them together to spread it. He hit a button on the front of the device and listened to the rising whine as the defibrillator charged. Then he placed the two paddles onto Lee's chest and pulled the trigger. Lee's body jumped as the electrical current shot through him, causing involuntary muscle contractions.

On the pulse monitor, the screen showed a spike as the defibrillator discharged, and then it began to record a weak but steady heart rhythm.

Gaius lowered the paddles to his sides, and looked up at Number Six. Her expression was unreadable, but her arms were crossed. Gaius replaced the paddles on the defibrillator, but did not approach her.

"Why did you revive him?" she asked, her voice neutral.

"Self-preservation," Gaius answered. "I eliminated the consciousness of the Centurion that was cohabiting this body and causing you so much distress," he explained, his expression defiant. "I did your God's will. I could not, however, allow the son of Commander Adama to die while in my care, undergoing my tests. That would have irreparably damaged my position in the fleet."

At that moment, Baltar heard the hatchway to the Infirmary open, and a second later Doc Cottle swept past the curtains to face him. "What happened here?" Cottle demanded.

Beside Cottle, Number Six leaned forward, speaking coldly, "Yes, Gaius, exactly what did happen here? You may have saved the Commander's son, but you still have a lot of explaining to do."

"Well, Major… er, Doctor… Umm… Which is it?" Baltar's stammered question was met with only an upraised eyebrow, and he was forced to continue. Glancing at Number Six, he said, "My initial test results were inconclusive, but carried an indicator of some sort of Cylon presence in Captain Apollo's blood." Baltar took a deep breath, and continued his fabricated explanation while Cottle regarded him warily. "I needed to treat him with an experimental antigen I've been working on, and then retest his blood." As he continued, Baltar's gaining confidence in his story was reflected in his face and the flow of his words. "Unfortunately, Captain Apollo reacted poorly to the antigen, and it became necessary to resuscitate him."

"Reacted poorly? You nearly killed him! You should have alerted me before you gave him some untested drug," Cottle responded gruffly.

"I don't think you understand the full scope of my work, Major," Baltar began haughtily. "And I doubt…."

"Wait a minute, Doctor Hotshot," Cottle interrupted. "You may be a genius, and the resident Cylon Expert, but I'm still the most experienced medical doctor in this fleet, and you're not coming anywhere near one of my patients again without my supervision. Is that clear?"

Baltar scowled, while beside Cottle Number Six laughed. He was annoyed at Cottle's impertinence, but in order to maintain his story Baltar would have to swallow his pride at this little incident. No one could be allowed to know that he meant for Lee Adama to die, although only briefly.

Baltar bent to the task of withdrawing another blood sample. Though he already knew what the results of this test would be, it was one more thing he had to execute in order to cover his true purpose. "I'll be in my lab, Major," Baltar said, and he walked quickly past the curtains and out of the infirmary.

"Gods damned crazy, arrogant son of a bitch," Cottle said as he turned his attention to Lee, whose chest was slowly rising and falling with each breath. Cottle checked the monitors, watching them for a few moments, and then he reached for a cigarette and headed for a phone to call the Commander.

--

Billy Keikeya stood beside the open hatchway to Doctor Baltar's laboratory, waiting until the Doctor gave him his attention.

"Mr. Vice President, you are requested to attend a private meeting with President Roslin and Commander Adama in the Commander's quarters, as soon as you have the results of Captain Apollo's blood work. You may present your results to the Commander there."

"Thank you, Billy," Baltar answered. "You may tell the President that I expect to have definitive results within the hour."

Billy nodded, and stepped through the hatchway. A marine guard pulled the hatch closed, remaining outside. Baltar raised an eyebrow at the marine's presence; he hadn't been placed under any sort of guard, so he could only assume that this was Adama's way of keeping his son's blood testing under wraps.

"You're not out of this yet, Gaius." Six's voice came from somewhere behind him, and her tone was still cold and tinged with anger. "The doctor didn't press you for details because he was focused on his patient's current condition. The Commander might be blinded by your act of proving that his son isn't a Cylon. If he doesn't ask the hard questions, though, the President will."

"I can handle President Roslin," he said as he stood and turned to face Six where she stood at the back of the lab. "What I have yet to figure out, however, is precisely why you seem to be angry with me?" He stepped toward Six as he spoke, ending his question as he reached her. Tilting his head quizzically, he tried to meet her eyes, but she avoided his gaze.

"I'm not angry with you, Gaius."

"Oh, but I sense that you are," he responded, still trying to meet her averted eyes. "And I believe that is not the only thing about which you aren't being entirely honest." He reached up to touch her chin for a moment, then turned away, stepping back to his chair. He did not sit, but watched the terminal screen where Lee Adama's test was progressing. After a moment he turned his attention back to Six. This time she met his eyes.

"After the Centurion's presence entered Apollo's body… if Apollo had not come back… if the Centurion were alone… would you still have asked me to kill it?"

"Gaius," Six admonished, but Baltar interrupted her.

"No, I don't believe you would have." Baltar regarded Six with narrowed eyes. Stepping back closer to her, he continued, "The real issue, the 'abomination' as you called it, was the presence of both Cylon and human in the same body." Six did not answer, but the hard look in her eyes told Baltar what he wanted to know.

"There's something more to this, isn't there?" Baltar placed his left arm across his chest, gripping the elbow of his other arm with his left hand as he rested his chin on his right. Standing beside Six, he held his pensive stance briefly before continuing. "There's a reason why you didn't want Lee Adama to live through this experience."

At that moment, Baltar's terminal signaled the end of the blood test. From where he stood confronting Six, Baltar could see that the test bars were all green, just as he expected. He glanced at the still silent Cylon as he returned to the terminal to print the results.

"No matter." With his back turned to Number Six, he waited for the printout and then gathered up his jacket. "It'll be our little secret." He stepped to the laboratory's entrance. Opening the hatchway, he requested the marine to inform Roslin and Adama that we would be arriving at Adama's quarters shortly. As the marine stepped away, Baltar looked back into the lab where Six stood watching him.

Baltar smiled at her, quite obviously pleased with himself. He was taking great pleasure in turning the tables upon his enigmatic companion. "You're not going to stay here, sulking, are you? We have a meeting to attend."

"After that, I really must speak with Lee Adama about his recent experiences," Baltar continued. "Somehow, I think you'll want to be there…."

fin